Although everyone loves to watch a fair, evenly matched sports contest, there is no such thing as "pure sport". The Sport and Society Reader is a collection of key scholarly and journalistic articles that demonstrate the ways that the sports we love to watch and the teams we love to root for are embedded in important social structures and processes that undermine sports’ "purity". The volume presents articles on:
- sports with – more or less – class
- race matters in sports
- gender myths and privileges in sports
- sports and deviance
- sexuality and sport
- globalizing sport.
The articles selected are both entertaining and highly illustrative of the links between sport and other areas of social study, resulting in a book that is as compelling as it is useful. In addition, the introductory approach used throughout orients the reader to specific key issues, making The Sport and Society Reader an ideal standalone text for students of all levels.
Davide Karen and Robert E. Washington’s fascinating collection of scholarly and journalistic articles challenges the prevailing perception of sports, and will stimulate discussion in the classroom and beyond. This is essential reading for all students of sports studies, the sociology of sport, and the sociology of culture.
Part 1 Introduction
Part 2 The Big Picture: Theorizing Sports from Sociological Perspectives
Introductory Essay
Excerpt from Gruneau and Whitson, Hockey Night in Canada
Excerpt from Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement
Daniel Chambliss, "The Mundanity of Excellence: An Ethnographic Report on Stratification and Olympic Swimmers," Sociological Theory, Vol. 7, 1989, pp. 70-86.
Part 3 High Brow and Low Brow Contests: Sports With -- More or Less – Class
Introductory Essay
Bourdieu, "Sport and Social Class"
Excerpt from Wacquant, "Body and Soul"
José Sergio Leite Lopes, "Class, Ethnicity, and Color in the Making of Brazilian Football," Daedalus 129, 2 (Spr 2000): 239-270
Part 4 Coloring The Game: Race Matters in Sports
Introductory Essay
David C. Ogden and Michael L. Hilt, "Collective Identity and Basketball: An Explanation for the Decreasing Number of African-Americans on America’s Baseball Diamonds," Journal of Leisure Research 35, 2 (2003): 213-227.
Malcolm Gladwell, "The Sports Taboo," New Yorker (Sept. 19, 1997).
Gerald Early, "Hot Spics versus Cool Spades"
Part 5 Manning The Field: Gender Myths and Privileges in Sports – Constructing Masculinity; Socialization
Introductory Essay
Trish Gorely, Rachel Holroyd, David Kirk, "Muscularity, the Habitus, and the Social Construction of Gender: Towards a Gender-Relevant Physical Education," British Journal of Sociology of Education, 24, 4 (Sept 2003): 429-448.
Excerpt from Messner, "Taking the Field: Women, Men, and Sports"
Sarah Banet-Weiser, "Hoop Dreams"
Part 6 Nice Guys Finish Last: Athletes Out of Bounds and the Problem of Sports and Deviance
Introductory Essay
Joe Pollack "IOC scandal part of sports corruption big picture (International Olympic Committee," St. Louis Journalism Review, Feb.1999 v117
Blinde and Taub, "Women Athletes as Falsely Accused Deviants"
Richard Lapchick, "Crime and Athletes: New Racial Sterotypes," Society, 2000
Part 7 Giving Up Your Body: Violence and Injuries in Sports
Introductory Essay
Marc Weinstein, et.al., "Masculinity and Hockey Violence," Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, Dec.1995.
Theresa Walton, "The Sprewell/Carlesimo Episode: Unacceptable Violence or Unacceptable Victim?" Soc. of Sport Journal (Sept, 2001)
Sebastien Guilbert, "Sport and Violence: A Typological Analysis," International Review for the Sociology of Sport (March 2004).
Part 8 The Faustian Bargain: Big Time Sports and The Media
Introductory Essay
Michael Messner and Jeffrey Montez de Oca, "The Male Consumer as Loser: Beer and Liquor Ads in Mega Sports Media Evenets," Signs, Spring 2005
David Nylund, "When in Rome: Heterosexism, Homophobia, and Sports Talk Radio," Journal of Sport and Social Issues 28, 2 (May 2004): 136-168.
Sut Jhally, "Cultural Studies and the Sports Media Complex," in Wenner, ed., Media, Sports, and Society
Part 9 Raiding The Public Treasury: The Political Economy of Professional Sports (Hustling Major League Cities?)
Introductory Essay
Excerpt from Delaney and Eckstein, "Public Dollars, Private Stadiums"
Alan Law, Jean Harvey, and Stuart Kemp, "The Global Sport Mass Media Oligopoly," International Review for the Sociology of Sport 37, 3/4 (2002):279-302.
Excerpt from Michael N. Danielson, "Home Team: Professional Sports and the American Metropolis", Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1997.
Part 10 Growth of Global Community or Neo-Imperialism? National Cultures and the Internationalization of Sports
Introductory Essay
Houlihan, Barrie, "Homogenization, Americanization, and Creolization of Sport: Varieties of Globalization," Sociology of Sport Journal (Dec. 1994).
Excerpt from Markovits and Hellerman, "Offside"
Michael Silk and David L. Andrews, "Beyond a Boundary? Sport, Transnational Advertising, and the Reimagining of National Culture," , Journal of Sport & Social Issues (Sept., 2001).
Part 11 True Love or a Marriage of Convenience: Big Time Sports and Higher Education
Introductory Essay
Chronicle of Higher Education report on "Title IX at 30" (6/21/02)
Excerpt from "Reclaiming the Game"
Andrew Guest and Barbara Schneider, "Adolescents’ extracurricular Participation in Context: The Mediating Effects of Schools, Communities, and Identity," Sociology of Education 76 (Apr 2003): 89-109.
Part 12 The Power of Athletics: Sports and Politics (Schwarzenegger; Soccer politics)
Introductory Essay
Peter Dreier, "Jocks for Justice," The Nation
Udo Merkel, "Sport, Power, and the State in Weimar Germany," pp. 141-160 in John Sugden and Alan Tomlinson, eds., Power Games: A Critical Sociology of Sport, Routledge, London and New York, 2002.
Excerpt from Douglas Hartmann, Golden Ghettos: Race, Culture and the Politics of the 1968 African American Olympic Protest Movement. 2003. University of Chicago Press.
Part 13 More Than A Game: Fandom and Community in Sports
Introductory Essay
Sports Illustrated, "Hazing in high school football," (Dec. 22, 2003)
Eric Dunning, "Towards a Sociological Understanding of Football Hooliganism as a World Phenomenon," European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 8, 2 (June 2000): 141-162.
David Rowe and Pauline McGuirk, "Drunk for Three Weeks: Sporting Success and City Image," International Review for the Sociology of Sport 34, 2 (1999): 125-142.
Richard Wright, "Joe Louis Uncovers Dynamite," New Masses.
Biography
David Karen is a Professor of Sociology at Bryn Mawr College. In addition to his interest in sports, he also focuses on social inequality, the sociology of education, and social movements. With Robert Washington, he wrote "Sport and Society," published in the Annual Review of Sociology.
Robert E. Washington is a Professor of Sociology at Bryn Mawr College. His areas of scholarly interest are sports sociology, race relations, social deviance, and the sociology of culture.
The Sport and Society Reader provides a comprehensive introduction to the sociology of sport, emphasizing central themes and highlighting emerging currents in the field. The selected readings offer critical assessments of race, class, gender, and sexuality from a range of theoretical perspectives. In addition to classic articles by leading scholars, the collection also smartly includes the writings of prominent journalists. The editors deserve praise for cultivating a global persepective, making it of value to students and scholars in the US, UK, and beyond. A highly readable volume, it should find regular use in classrooms.
- C. Richard King
Professor and Chair
Department of Comparative Ethnic StudiesWashington State University
